Method of conditioning waste



0st. 21, 1930f E s. PEARCE 3 9 METHOD OF GONDITIONINE) WASTE Original Filed J1me 7,! 1928' HE'S? zzwmva "D M manure PRES-S INVENTOF! ful stran Patented a. 21, 1930 i UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE EDWIN .S. PEARCE, OF INDIANAIOLIS, INDIANA, ASSIGNOR TO RAILWAY SERVICE AND SUPPLY CORPORATION, OF INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, A CORPORATION OF INDIANA' METHOD OF CONDITIONING WASTE B E 7 Application filed. June 7, 1928, Serial No. 283,725. Renewed August 25,1930.

This invention relates to a method for 0on ditioning new waste for use as a carrier for 011 for the lubrication of railway car ournals and other objects commonly In such oil carrying waste. ,7

'One grave objection to the use of waste for supplying oil to the journal surface to be 111- ricated with bricated is the danger of hot boxes, due to the failure of the waste to deliver the lubricant L0 to the journal surface. For some time pastit has been assumed that such failures of the waste have been caused by sand, grit, or metal particles or fragments collected by the waste during use or as part of its original compo-' sition, or by short worn fibres, any of which may become compacted against the rotating surface and shield it from the lubricant. The waste was assumed to consist of relatively long wool and cotton fibres so comsion that more serious and harmful results are produced and many hot boxes are caused by another ingredient of the waste heretofore not taken into consideration, to wit, the lint, which is very fine textile material, either wool or cotton, or both, including the very fine fibres and fibrous fragments, much smaller in size than the so-called short fibres and either in the raw Waste in the beginning or resulting from normal tear or wear of the longer more efficient fibres during use of the waste. Under a'high powered microscope magnify ing twenty or more diameters a single useor fibre of waste appears in the field as a heavy solid line and the lint looks like the finest hairs spreadin out from the strand in all directions and 0 very small diameter as compared with the strand itself. This fine lint is not firmly anchored and becomes detached and in the presence of lubri eating oil during use in the journal box' it floats freely with the liquid toward the surface tobe lubricated and ultimately mats together like felt, forming what might be referred to as an impenetrable filter bed, which blocks or undesirably retards lubricant flow by shutting offthe ability for capillary action from fibre to fibre to develop. The result is to pile up this filtering lint within the waste body'or against the rotating journal with a failure of lubrication, rise in temperature,

charring and burning of the lint and nearby oil and Waste,'and the production of a tarry residue from the oil, these effects becoming cumulative until finally lubricant flow-is completely shut oif and a hot box develops. I have discovered that the tendency of' the lint to move with the oil may be taken advantage of to effect the removal of the lint from the waste by using the lubricant as a vehicle to remove the lint, as will appear.

Of course, in the preparation ofwaste for lubricating purposes, there is no objection to removing therefrom short fibres, sand, grit, metal fragments, or other mechanical impurities, either from new unused waste, if such are present, or from used waste during t e process of reclamation or renovation thereof. Their presence is objectionable, and efficient waste should becleanand of uniform texture. Nevertheless, according to my investigations and experience in practice, the danger which dictates the removal of such materials is over-shadowed by a greater necessity for eliminating, or at least reducing, the amount tent of new or raw waste-by removin it with a liquid having no deleterious e ect upon the waste and not interfering with its intended use, such a 1i uid being lubricating oil, which not only ena les the method to be also advances it toward its finished form suitable for use in lubrication.

. In the drawings, Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic.

view of one system ororganization of appacarried out conveniently and at low cost, butv 40 way, the lint becomes suspended in the oil,

ratus for practicing the method; and Figs. 2 and 3 are detail. views more or less conventionally representing different parts of the apparatus.

Waste employed for lubricating purposes includes either wool or cotton fibres or both. It is usually produced from used fabrics containing various dyes and from mill strands. Such material, with-any desired or convenient proportions of wool and cotton, and of course washed and dried by ordinary laundry practices, where necessary to remove dirt, is shredded or torn to reduce it to fine fragments and to open up and separate from each other the threads or fibres of the textile fabric so that its weave entirely disappears. This step is performed in' any suitable or desirable shredding or tearing machine indicated conventionally at A.

The product of this machine may be termed raw waste. It has been used heretofore for many purposes and is the product customarily employed without change for journal box lubrication by mixing therewith a proper quantity. of lubricating oil. By my invention I begin to eliminate or remove the lint from this raw waste before it is used for lubricating purposes and all steps of the method are directed with the two aims of removing lint and supplying proper lubricant.

The lint is removed from the raw waste by flushing it out with the same kind of lubricating oil which is later valuable for lubricating purposes in the journal box to which the waste is supplied. By merely plunging the waste into a bath of oil and poling it around and around, or by agitatingit in a bath of oil in a suitable machine, such as an ordinary drum type washing machine, or by supplying the oil to the waste in any other suitable whereas the useful fibres of textile fabric will settle or can be collected. The lint is so small that it will even pass through fairly .fine filters. It is therefore suitable to remove the lint from the waste by flushing or washing with an excess of oil. ratus for the purpose is an ordinary centrifugal extractor to which oil may be continuously supplied and caused to pass through the waste. Such a machine is shown at B, Fig. 1,

'and'in Fig. 2 andfor example, may be of the tgpe lllustrated in the patent of John W.-

ercaw, for centrifugal machine, granted August 28, 1928, No. 1,682,473, to which reference may be had for a more complete description if necessary.

The machine shown in Fig. 2 comprises a sultable statlonary curb or casing 1 in which is a rotatable basket or container 2 adapted the lint-containin One suitable appa the inner one 4 being adjustably rotatable to produce more or less registration of the openings in the two cylinders,,and which cylinders form a distributor for the oil supplied to the waste, which is delivered to the machine by the pipe 5. In the extractor basket is placed a charge of waste for removal of the lint therefrom. Some oil may be delivered to the waste before the machine is started, although this is not always essential, but in any event,

' after the basket is rotating oil is supplied to the central distributor and rises in the same to taking up the lint in suspension and carrying it out through the perforations or foraminations of the basket wall. In this way practically all of the lint may be washed out. supply of oil is shut off and the extracting operation is continued to reduce to a minimum thequantity of the remaining oil,since it is obviously desirable to remove as much of or oil as possible.

. .By extracting the oil to as low an amount as possible, the small amount remaining after a reasonably protracted extraction is merely that which saturates the fibres themselves, and the fibre saturated waste runs quite uniform in oil content so that it is readily impregnated at the oint of use by adding a The I known quantity 0 oil, making it possible to in compact form and without oil loss.

I The purpose of the cylinders 3,4 is merely to insure retarded flow of the oil to the waste so as to build up a quantity in said cylinders and supply oil to the upper layers of waste in the extractor as Well as to the bottom, and o bviously the oil may be supplied to the extractor directly from a hose or nozzle or other supplying device and played over the waste while the basket is rotating.

In the oil'flushing or washing step, it is necessary to setthe lint free and suspend or entrain it in the oil in a mobile condition so that it will flow with it. Experience shows that if a given batch of waste is treated with a given charge of oil and the latter is applied to the waste again and again, such as by repeated circulation, the oil body collects more and more lint until finally the proportion of lint in the oil probably reaches a maximum, after which further re-circulation' or continued treatment seems to be without lint collecting benefit. Oil used to treat waste containing a small quantity of lint Having removed the lint by flushing .or

might well collect a definite maximum quantity of lint fromsuch waste by repeated circulation and find its level or stable value of lint content, but the same oil used on such Waste might collect additional lint if used for treating 'waste containing a higher lint content. The present invention contemplates any repeated application of oil to waste, such as by re-circulation or otherwise, to a useful degree, but aims to avoid re-use of the oil for lint removal after it has collected itsmaximum quantity of lint under any given conditions or, in other words, to avoid anyuse of the lint laden oil upon waste which might permanently restore to the Wastesome removed lint, the whole purpose of the invention being to remove the lint and permanently keep it out. Where to stop re-circulation or repeated oil treatment depends upon several factors, such as the viscosity of the oil, its temperature, the physical character of the waste, the total lint content, the relative volume of oil bath to waste being treated, etc.

waste by a flushing or washing step, so asto reduce the lint content of the waste to as low a value as possible, is not again applied to waste unless there is the possibility of removing additional lint from such waste, but; rather, is first suitably treated to remove its lint content and therefore renew its lintcollecting'ability, or, on'the other hand, may sometimes be used for other industrial purposes where lint content is not objectionable.

Removal of the lint from the oil may be carried out in any suitable manner, such as by the method of reclaiming or renovating mineral lubricating oils described in an application Serial No. 74,949, filed December 12, 1925, by Leonard D. Grisbaum, to which application reference may be had for a more complete description of the process if desired. For the present it is suificient to say that by said Grisbaum method the oil to be cleaned or renovated and containing dirt, grit and lint in emulsified form or in suspension is treated with a solution of caustic soda, usually while heated, the effect of which is to break down or destroy part of the lint, such as the woolen or animal fibres, and precipitate the remainder, such as cotton or vegetable fibres. Washing with cold water removes the soluble or broken down material and throws down the undissolved lint with the sludge. The clear oil remaining floats on top of the water and is removed and heated with the application of asuction or Vac uum effect, which dehydrates the oil without the creation of any emulsion, leaving the oil lint-free and in proper form for re-application to further waste from which lint is to be removed, such as by supplying it tothe extractor feed pipe 5.

washing with lubricating oil, the now lintfree waste is ready for shipping or transportation to the place of use. It may be charged with its oil content reduced to a minimum lnto an ordinary baling press, indicated conventionally at Q, where it is baled and tied in the usual manner'of materials of this kind.

The baling of course protects all of the inmixed with a suitable quantity of clean lubrieating oilin any desired manner to bring the oil content up to the degree necessary for journal box lubrication. I

If desired, the lint-freewaste may immediately be impregnated with a proper quantity of oil before it is packed or shipped.

This may be accomplished in what is known as an impregnator press, indicated conventionallyat D, Fig. 1, and in Fig. 3. and which press, for example, may be of the form shown, described and claimed in my prior patent, No. 1,723,747, granted August 6, 1929. Briefly described, this impregnator press includes a cylindrical tank or chamber 15 open at its top and containing a removable piston 16 capable of being drawn downwardly by the vacuum or suction effect produced in the chamber beneath it by a source of suction communicating with a pipe 17 extending up within the chamber and entering a hollow extension 18 of the piston. The waste to be traces of moisture that'may be present, be- I cause the oil is usually hot, and'the waste may also be hot, and at the higher temperature, say 190 F. or so, the moisture boils off as vapor and is thereby removed. At the same time the mass is compacted and in a sense is baled and can be removed and packaged as finished lubricating waste ready for use in a journal box.

The chief attribute of the invention, of

course, is the removal of lint from new or uct being a compact mass of lint-free waste the lint in said waste, in removing as much ,containing some or -all ofthe necessary oil,

but which in any event is free from lint and therefore reduces liability of hot boxes when it is used in'journal boxes for lubricating purposes.

What I claim is: I

1. The methodof conditioning unoiled waste for use in journal box packing, consisting in subjecting said waste to lubricating oil capable of collecting or entraining the lint in said wasteand then in removing as much of said oil with its entrained or collected lint as possible. 2. The method of conditioning ii'iioiled waste for use in journal box packing, consisting in subjecting said Waste to lubricating oil capable of collecting or entraining of said oil with its entrained or collected lint as possible and in treating the oil thus removed to remove the lint therefrom and thereby render said oil suitable for reuse as a lint-collecting medium.

3. The method of conditioning unoiled waste for use in journal box packing, consisting in subjecting said waste to substantially lint-free lubricating oil to collect the lint of said waste, in removing said oil with its collected or entrained lint by an extracting operation, which insures uniform removal of said oil to a minimum degree, and

in treating the oil thus removed to remove the lint therefrom, thereby rendering said oil suitable for reuse as a lint-collecting medium.

nature.

- EDWIN S. PEARCE.

In testimony whereof I hereby aflix my sig- 

